A Book and Blog about Life

Atheism and God

Studies on the scientific community’s belief in God reveals a stark difference compared to the greater population.

A fairly comprehensive study performed by the Pew Research Center in 2009 showed that only 51% of scientists believe in God or some higher power. A minority, 41% of scientists, believe in neither God or even a higher power.

Compare this to the overall population, where the overwhelming majority of people, 68%, believe in God according to the UPI/Harris poll conducted in 2013. However, this is down sharply from 82% in 2009.

When asked if they are Athiest – absolutely convinced God or a higher power does not exist – only 17% of scientists identified as Atheist. Barely 2.4% of the general public identify as Athiest in the same respective polls.

A more broad annual survey, called the General Social Survey which interviews up to 58,000 people about religion, as well as a host of other topics, found that the younger generation’s belief has eroded significantly. For those aged 18 to 29, the number of people who do not believe in God rose to 30%, up substantially from 12% in the late 80s. This is what mathematicians call statistically significant, meaning the deviation from historic trends is caused by a new external force.

Strangely, 80 percent of Americans believe in an “afterlife” according to the results from 2014. This is up from 73% in 1974. This would seem contradictory to their declining belief in God, most likely driven by a rejuvenation of spiritual religions like Buddhism among the younger population.

All of this data is interesting. It’s incredibly fascinating, I think.

Albert Einstein is considered the father of modern physics. In my opinion, physicists are the cream of the crop when it comes to scientists; the most intelligent, collectively. Einstein believed in God. I think it could be easily argued Albert Einstein may have been the most brilliant human being to ever live. But he understood the limitations of science, a concept that seems lost on so many of today’s scientists, especially the younger generation.

Isaac Newton is considered the father of classic physics, otherwise called Newtonian physics, dealing with large bodies at slower speeds relative to the speed of light. (Modern physics, especially Quantum physics, deals with tiny particles that move near the speed of light. Everything changes at such high speeds.) Newton was also one of the most brilliant men to ever live. Isaac Newton believed in God, even if it wasn’t classic Christian beliefs that were so prevalent in his day.

I wrote in Chapter 6: Morality and Religion, in my book “Iron, not Wood”, that I didn’t believe in a “personal God”, but was generally inclined to believe in some higher power that created or designed or help shape all of “this”. I recently discovered that Einstein also didn’t believe in a personal God, even if he believed in a higher power or intelligence. (Don’t confuse my creative writing blog posts with what I actually believe.)

I outlined in Chapter 9: The Perfect Symphony, why I felt it was mathematically and scientifically impossible that all of “this” could occur by random order. I wrote 200 pages explaining in excruciating and sometimes boring detail, why. All of “this” was no accident, that much is certain.

My personal opinion is that academia and media is largely driving the youth away from believing in God. I’m not a total moron, I read media every day and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand the trend of academic institutions and school text books. There is a concerted effort on the part of the Left to destroy religion or at least undermine it. Be objective, if you don’t believe it. The math also objectively confirms this.

I think this is more than a shame. It’s irresponsible. It’s borderline criminal. Brainwashing. It takes away the most vital critical thinking we can have in our lives.

I’m not religious. But I generally believe in God. There is much I don’t know. There is much that we don’t know, never will know, nor can we ever know. There are finite limits to science and the knowledge it can yield.

My faith is not based on hope or fantasy. It is certainly not based on blind faith. My faith is quite simple: Mathematically, I’ve excluded the possibility that consciousness and life could be derived by randomness; and as such, it must – therefore – be designed with intent, meaning by some intelligence. There is no other option I can rationally cling onto. It’s purely an objective conclusion based on the most objective means of quantification – mathematics.

Why does this even matter?

I’m not certain it does, to be perfectly honest. I don’t have any more insight to God that anyone else. But the probability that there should be some consequence to our lives seems higher than the idea that it doesn’t matter at all.

We can all choose to believe whatever the hell we want to; insist on believing; or delude ourselves to believe. It’s our right as free conscious human beings. But what we believe has zero impact to the true reality. Reality is unchanged by our beliefs. If there is a God, then He/She/It exists regardless of how we feel. What we believe only makes us temporary feel better, or more absolved.

So here’s the deal, there is zero doubt about one thing: There is an infinitesimally small chance (approximating zero) that trillions of sequential mathematically improbable steps could converge so perfectly to generate consciousness and complex biological life, driven purely by randomness. And yes, natural selection is a randon event, as I discuss in chapter 9 as well.

In fact, there is growing scientific thought that consciousness cannot be a purely physical phenomenon, derived as a byproduct of intellect. Perhaps I will blog about this soon.

Anyway, we can all believe whatever we want. But if you can’t refute why it’s mathematically impossible, then it’s just blind faith.